No side has room for complacency

Political conventions have never presented the most honest version of American politics.

If the economy is good, the party in power has always taken credit. If not, it’s always been because of the failed policies of the other party.

If the polls are good, you flaunt it. If not, you say you never rely on them anyway.

Political conventions have always been where the parties trot out their best, hide their worst, and everybody downplays or exaggerates, as needed.

The Republicans this year played faster and looser with rules and laws than any party ever has. That’s mostly because they could. Why worry about violating the Hatch Act if there’s no one there with authority who’s going to enforce it?

President Donald Trump so dominates the Republican Party now that the party dispensed with a platform. Basically, it’s whatever Trump wants.

The GOP, however, has come up with some very formidable stands on which to take on the Democrats.

While there is wide tolerance for the message of Black Lives Matter, especially in light of shootings of African Americans at the hands of over-reacting white police, there is little for destructive riots that devolve from peaceful protests, especially as nights of violence have dragged on for months in some major cities.

While former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s opponent, has personally rejected “Defund the Police,” the phrase is linked to Democrats. The Republicans would be fools not to run with this ball.

The Democrats are accused, with some justification, of being soft on China, just as Trump has been too soft on Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

There are some big holes in the Republican playbook, however.

The party is trying to portray Trump’s role in COVID-19 pandemic as heroic when it was uninformed, dismissive and woefully inadequate from day one. While much of the rest of the planet seems to be getting a handle on COVID-19, the U.S. has the worst per-capita caseload and death rates in the world. No amount of blaming China for COVID-19’s origin is cover for Trump’s chaotic response.

Trump’s border wall is not going up as fast as many think it should, and it has already proven ineffective against cutting torches and ladders.

And there’s still the problem of the cruel separation of kids from parents at the borders and not enough sympathetic recognition of the humanitarian crises in Central America that drove immigrants to the border.

Then there is Trump’s unspeakable photo-op flop in which he had a peaceful protest cleared with tear gas, troops and helicopters, only so he could walk to a historic church and hold the Bible next to his face as if it were a box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

Today, as in 2016, Trump is playing to fears. Quite a few of those fears — rioting, crime, economic stagnation in the face of COVID-19, not to mention its impact on jobs, the economy and education -are far more tangible in 2020 than they were in 2016.

There is no reason for complacency in either party.

Let the battle begin.

Steve Hansen writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]